The following steps illustrated in this section provide concrete examples of companies.

Step 1: Intellectual property

With dogged perseverance, based on a fledgling idea, your company develops innovations and concrete designs in the form of technical inventions, eye-catching brands, product designs and original packaging. Don’t wait to figure out how you want to protect your intellectual property from misuse. You must also be careful not to infringe on the intellectual property rights of others.

Companies with share capital: these include, among others, limited companies (SAs) and limited liability companies (SARLs). For companies with share capital, liability can be reduced because for legal entities, company assets are held separately from its owners. In other words, the owners are not liable for the company’s debts.

Step 3: Trade register

Each canton has one or more trade registers. The Swiss Confederation is responsible for the strict supervision of all registers. The register contains all of the important business information about companies registered in Switzerland.

By law, all commercial or industrial businesses must be registered with the trade register. Registered companies are required to keep their accounts in order. By registering with the trade register, the name of the company (corporate name) is protected.

OASI/DI/APG make up the first pillar. It is mandatory for everyone whether in the active workforce or not.

The second pillar concerns occupational pension insurance (OP). It is only mandatory for employees whose salaries do not exceed a certain threshold. And this amount is regularly adjusted.

The third pillar concerns private pensions. It is especially important for self-employed persons working as sole proprietors or in partnerships who, unlike employees, cannot pay into occupational pension plans. As a rule, founders of sole proprietorships have the status of self-employed workers and are largely responsible for paying into their own social security.

Step 5: Value-added tax

Value-added tax (VAT) is a general tax on consumption.

The Federal Tax Administration, or the Liechtenstein Tax Administration, is responsible for collecting tax on domestic sales and on the profits earned for services provided internationally. The Federal Customs Administration charges VAT on imports.